Introduction to Natural Landscaping
Saturday May 10th 2008 | 9:00 am-3:00pm
Presented by Larry Lamb, University of Waterloo and Jay Cranstone, Stantec
- Presentation on Natural Landscaping & landscape plan for the Grand House pdf
- Handouts from Larry Lamb pdf 1of3, pdf 2of3, pdf 3of3
- Video footage of the workshop - coming soon
The Grand House Cooperative welcomed Larry Lamb and Jay Cranstone to the workshop series to discuss natural landscaping in both a general sense as well as specifically relating to the Grand House proposed landscaping plan.
The presentation began with Larry Lamb discussing natural landscaping in its broad terms, beginning with historical references to architecture and the role landscaping played, assumptions that one was wealthy if they had a lawn and the bizarre act of attempting to mimic and integrate with nature by actually destroying it. The lawn itself was discussed as a major flaw in natural landscaping, reliant on fertilizers to maintain it during off-season, using herbicides and plenty of water to keep it healthy. The first major step in natural landscaping is to minimize the lawn!
The Stedman family had the first contracted wildflower garden in Ontario’s history and is located in Brantford.
Natural gardening is often misunderstood and many non-native species find their way into what most people think is a natural landscape.
A meadow is a fleeting stage of succession, leaving a field to fallow so that species follow a successional phase into forest.
A prairie is a community that has been there for 1000’s of years, has no real woodlots and no tendency to turn into a forest.
Larry discussed models of landscaping transformation:
ST John Kilmarnock School – old gravel pit turned into a prairie landscape with Great Lake shoreline vegetation
Union Gas Brantford – prairie restoration
Ontario Die – prairie and savannah
Sytec Niagara – restore brownfield using Niagara prairies/savannah
St Joseph Hospital – created a therapy garden that moved from the exterior into the interior
Cemeteries – there was historical precedence for settlers to achieve status symbol by being buried in the prairie, if the towns survived, the cemeteries would be cleaned up – if not, they would be left to flower. Movement to turning manicured cemeteries back into wildflower and prairie lots.
Larry concluded by discussing native and non-native species and showed images of natural landscaping reconstruction projects as well as private gardens.
Jay from Stantec followed with a closer look at the Grand House landscape plan. He began by introducing a general design plan that workshop attendees could follow when planning their own landscaping projects.
Jay discussed rehabilitation projects, followed by specific planning related to the Grand House and how the design process applied to all natural landscaping processes, and concluding with samples of innovative natural landscaping solutions for past projects.
The workshop moved to the site after lunch and everyone took a tour of the site while Larry discussed specific options for the Grand House. It was noted that not much could be done directly under the foundation structure but that some plants could be allowed to grow beyond their boundaries and into the space as they wanted to cover the foundation columns and footings. Care must be taken not to disturb the foundation. Options were discussed for both the upper site as well as the roadside as planting will differ greatly for both areas. Larry also identified existing plants on site and made suggestions for their maintenance or removal as needed.
